Rams Ready For Postseason At NCAA Kissimmee Regional May 14-16

Tournament: NCAA Kissimmee Regional
Date: May 14-16, 2018
Host: University of Central Florida and the Central Florida Sports Commission
Location: Kissimmee, Fla.
Course: Watson Course at Reunion Resort
Course Par/Yardage: Par 72 / 7,154 yards
Host Web Site: http://www.ncaa.com
Live Scoring: http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=15136
Tournament Field (14): Colorado State, Arizona, Central Connecticut State, Central Florida, Coastal Carolina, Florida, Georgetown, Jacksonville State, Kent State, North Carolina, Purdue, Saint Mary's (Calif.), South Florida, Vanderbilt

Next on the Tee: The Colorado State men's golf team will head to Kissimmee, Fla., for the 2018 NCAA Kissimmee Regional, May 14-16. The three-day, 54-hole stroke play event will be played at the Watson Course at Reunion Resort, with the top five teams earning a berth to the NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Okla., May 25-30. CSU enters the tournament as the No. 8 seed and will play with No. 7 Purdue and No. 9 Saint Mary's (Calif.) in the first round, starting off No. 1 at 8:25 a.m. EDT (6:25 am MDT) Monday.

Handicapping the Field: There are 14 teams in the field for the 2018 NCAA Kissimmee Regional, with six teams entering as conference champions and 10 ranked in the top 57 in the country. Along with the Rams, currently ranked No. 44 according to Golfstat, the field (in rank order) consists of Vanderbilt (#5), Florida (#8), North Carolina (#17), South Florida (#20), Kent State (#29), Arizona (#32), Purdue (#41), Saint Mary's (#53), UCF (#57), Coastal Carolina (#86), Jacksonville State (#142), Georgetown (#159) and Central Connecticut State (#224).
   In this Regional, the Rams have seen three teams (Arizona, North Carolina and Saint Mary's (Calif.)) a combined 12 teams on the year, having earned two wins each over Arizona and Saint Mary's.

Lineup for the NCAA Regional: The Rams are in the play-five, count-four event this week at the NCAA Kissimmee Regional. For CSU, the lineup will be:
1.   AJ Ott
2.   Max Oelfke
3.   Jake Staiano
4.   Jack Ainscough
5.   Parathakorn Suyasri

CSU History at the NCAA Regionals: CSU is making its 17th appearance in a NCAA Regional, having twice moved on to the NCAA Championship in 1999 and 2011. The Rams top finish in a regional is runner-up at the 2011 South Central Regional at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie, Colo.
   Most of the time, the Rams have played in the West Regional, competing in that 12 times. This will mark only the third time that CSU has played in a regional in the Eastern time zone, having played in Chattanooga, Tenn. in 2008 and Galloway, N.J. in 2009.
   However, the Rams have a player in the lineup with postseason experience as Jake Staiano played as an individual in last year's Austin Regional.

Newton MW Coach of the Year; Ott, Oelfke Honored: Coming off its second straight runner-up finish in the Mountain West and highest ranking in six years, the Colorado State men's golf program earned a trio of postseason awards as head coach Christian Newton was named MW Coach of the Year while sophomore AJ Ott and senior Max Oelfke were named to All-Mountain West today. The honors were determined in a vote by the league's coaches.
   In earning his first league honor, Newton led CSU to its current ranking of No. 30 according to Golfweek and No. 44 according to Golfstat, as well as back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Mountain West Championship, the top back-to-back combined placings in program history. The program is also assured of its first NCAA Regionals berth as a team since 2012 under his leadership. He is just the fourth CSU coach to ever earn the honor, as Jamie Bermel garnered the award three times, and first since 2009-10.
   Ott led the Rams in scoring average this season, averaging 71.63 strokes in 30 rounds played, an improvement of almost four strokes a round over his freshman year. He posted a pair of top-five and three top-10 finishes on the year, highlighted by a fourth in the Ram Masters Invitational and a tie for fifth at the recent Mountain West Championship. He had 14 rounds of par or better, with a career-best 6-under 66 in the first round of the MW event, and placed in the top 26 in eight of 10 tournaments played this season. Having started the year not ranked in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, Ott has jumped all the way to 290th in the world from his play this year. He also is currently sixth on CSU's single-season chart with his 71.63 scoring average.
    Oelfke was second for CSU in scoring right behind at 71.80 strokes per round, including a pair of top-five placings and three top 10s. The senior's top finishes were a second at the season-opening Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational and a tie for fifth with Ott and fellow Ram Jake Staiano at the Mountain West Championship. For the year, he had 17 rounds of par or better and finished in the top 21 in six events, including top-15s in the nationally-renowned Oregon Duck Invitational and Western Intercollegiate this spring. His average has him 11th on CSU's single-season scoring list entering the postseason.
   The duo are the 20th and 21st Rams to be honored since the league started in 1999-2000. Additionally, this gives CSU three players that have been recognized on the squad as junior Jake Staiano was a selection last season.

Last Time on the Tee: For the second consecutive year, the Colorado State men's golf finished as runner-up at the Mountain West Men's Golf Championship, April 20-22. The three-day, 54-hole event, hosted by the Mountain West Conference, was played at the Olympic Course at Gold Mountain Golf Club (Par 72 – 7,115 yards) in Bremerton, Wash.
    On the final day of the tournament, the Rams were able to post a 2-over 290 and finished at 3-over 867, 11 shots back of champion UNLV at 8-under 856, with the Rebels winning their third straight title. Nevada was third at 11-over 875 with Fresno State in fourth at 17-over 881. Wyoming and New Mexico tied for fifth at 18-under 882.
    The Rams had three players tie for fifth in the event, as senior Max Oelfke, junior Jake Staiano and sophomore AJ Ott all finished at 1-over 215 for the week. Staiano finished the tournament with three rounds of par or better, while Oelfke had two. Freshman Jack Ainscough tied for 27th at 9-over 225, while freshman Parathakorn Suyasri tied for 41st at 13-over 229. UNLV's Shintaro Ban, currently ranked 20th in the nation, was the individual winner at 16-under 200, nine shots ahead of Grant Booth of Nevada.
    "This was overall a good result this week," head coach Christian Newton said. "Runner-up two years in row is still a nice accomplishment. I'm very proud of our resiliency this week. The guys fought hard without their best at times. It was great to see Jake, AJ, and Max all in the top five. I couldn't be happier with this group heading into NCAA Regionals."
(complete recap on page 8)

Individual National Rankings: Colorado State's success on the course is due to the entire lineup, as all five golfers are ranked significantly in the key NCAA Division I metrics. The Rams current rankings are:
Player   Golfweek   Golfstat
AJ Ott   170   181
Max Oelfke   194   203
Jake Staiano   281   282
Jack Ainscough   346   275
Parathakorn Suyasri   384   348

On the World Stage: All five Rams that played in the lineup in the fall are ranked among the top 1800 players in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings. The rankings are based on their average performance in selected counting events over the past two calendar years.
Player   WAGR
AJ Ott   291*
Jake Staiano   338
Max Oelfke   355
Parathakorn Suyasri   637
Jack Ainscough   1780*
(*just entered in last month of fall season)

On the CSU Career Chart: The current roster is etching their names on the CSU record book (since 1993-94).

Junior Jake Staiano continues to be among the best to have played at CSU so far in his career. His scoring average of 72.35 in 81 competitive rounds ranks fourth all-time in average and sixth versus par at 0.90.
He is one of six players in CSU history to have 50 percent or more of his collegiate rounds played at par or better (currently 44 of 81 - 54.3 percent). This season, he has 18 of his 30 rounds at par or better, (60.0 percent) just outside the top 15 in school history at 19.
Staiano has an all-time win percentage of 70.3 percent, currently seventh in CSU annals, while senior Max Oelfke ranks 13th in the category at 63.1 percent.
Sophomore AJ Ott is currently sixth in single-season scoring average at 71.63 strokes per round, and his 76.7 winning percentage (according to Golfstat) is 14th in CSU annals.
Oelfke has shown his ability to post quite a few under-par holes in his career. He is tied for first in career eagles with 21 in 123 rounds played. He also has 401 career birdies (averaging 3.26 per round), which is seventh.
Staiano also ranks on the eagles made chart with 10, tied for ninth.

Ott Racks Up First Career Top-5 Finish, Starting Strong: Sophomore AJ Ott posted his first collegiate top-5 and second top-10 finish of the year with a fourth at the Ram Masters Invitational, Sept. 18-19. The Fort Collins native previously tied for 10th at the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational for his first collegiate career top 10. In his 10 tournaments, his finishes include three top 10s and eight of 10 tournaments in the top 26. Ott leads the team with a 71.63 strokes per round average ( 0.33) and has counted his score towards the team total 86.7 percent of the season (26 of 30 rounds). For his performance on the course, Ott was recognized as All-Mountain West for the first time in his collegiate career.

Putting Together Top-10s This Season: CSU has played extremely solid golf this season, showing in the rankings. Sophomore AJ Ott has four top-16 placings, while senior Max Oelfke and junior Jake Staiano each have three on the year. Staiano and freshman Parathakorn Suyasri finished fifth and tied for eighth, respectively, at the Ram Masters Invitational. Suyasri also finished in a tie for eighth at Saint Mary's, Yates tying for 14th and Ott tying for 20th. The top trio for CSU (Ott, Oeflke, Staiano) all tied for fifth at the recently played Mountain West Championship, solidifying the team's berth in the NCAA Regionals. Currently, the Rams have six top-five, 14 top-10 and 25 top-20 individual finishes so far this year.

Making A Mark Nationally: The Rams are making their presence known on the national scene this year. With four top-five finishes in the fall and solid placings in the top spring events, CSU is ranked No. 41 in the nation according to the Golfweek ratings & No. 43 according to Golfstat's ratings.

Showing the Growth: Under head coach Christian Newton, CSU continues to show growth on the national stage, as the Rams play a high-level schedule each year. With the performance so far this season, Newton's teams moved to a 59.5 percent winning record in his six years according to Golfstat. Newton moved ahead of Mark Crabtree (1994-99) on the list at 57.0 percent and Newton has six career CSU team tournament titles to Crabtree's five.

Fall Accomplishments: The Rams had one of their most successful falls, with several notables:

In the fall schedule, CSU finished in the top five in all four fall events with three third top-threes and one tournament title (Ram Masters Invitational).
In the four tournaments of the fall, CSU defeated 22 teams that were represented either with teams or individuals in the NCAA Regionals last year. Of those, 14 were victories over regional teams with three over squads that advanced to the NCAA Championship.
CSU had six of their 12 team rounds in the fall that all four counting rounds come in at par or better.
The Rams shot 13-under 271 in the final round of the Saint Mary's Invitational, tying the best under-par round of the season (-13), is the second lowest 18-hole score of the year for the squad and ties for the ninth-lowest single round total in school history.
At Saint Mary's, Colorado State defeated 11 teams ranked in the top 103 (at the time of the event) according to Golfweek's rating system, which had the Rams ranked #18 entering the event. The only teams to finish ahead of the Rams were #30 Southern Cal and #14 Stanford.
In winning the Ram Masters Invitational, CSU shot a 12-under 268 in the opening round. That score is tied for the sixth lowest 18-hole total in program history.
Colorado State currently has a head-to-head mark of 109-45 (.694) on the season against one of the toughest schedules in school history, far above the minimum .500 record for consideration for the NCAA Regional at-large bid they received.

Record Setting Event at Ram Masters: CSU had its name all over the Ram Masters Invitational record book during the 2017 event. As a team, the Rams set new records for lowest single-round score (-12, 268 in opening round), lowest 36-hole score (-12, 548) and lowest 54-hole score (-17, 823) in the tournament's history. The Rams' third round of 5-under 275 is also the fourth lowest in the tournament's annals. Individually, AJ Ott's 4-under 206 is tied for the sixth-lowest 54-hole score, while Jake Staiano's 3-under 207 is tied for ninth. Staiano's 4-under 66 in the first round is tied for the 10th lowest single-round score.

Ram on Tour: Former Colorado State standout Martin Laird, a PGA tour veteran, has had a solid 2018 season so far on the tour, currently with $816,490 in earnings and currently 81st in the FedEx Cup. He has made the cut in eight of 12 events played with three top 10s and five top 25s, with the best finish a tie for seventh at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a 17-under 271. In 2017, his efforts during the regular season earned him a spot in the FedExCup Playoffs for the eighth time. For his career, he has now surpassed $16.45 million in winnings and made the cut in more than two-thirds of his 251 PGA Tour starts in his 10-plus years on the top golf tour. Laird was inducted into the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame this past fall.

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